Wanna start things off by saying this forum rocks.Now, on to the subject. To all of you using any of the superbraids, which brand do you use and which knots do you prefer?I've been reading up alot on the knots recommended for SB's and can't seem to find any that I like.I've been doing alot of testing on many different knots using a spare spool of SW stealth 80lb. that I have laying around. I've tried palomars, double palomars, surgeons loops, bemini twist and a few other knots and none of them are as strong as some people claim. I've heard many people say that a bimini twist is suppose to have close to 100% knot strength. Not so... However, of all of the knots that I've tested it was the strongest, breaking anywhere from 56lbs up to 63lbs. A palomar that everybody talks so highly of didn't do to well in my tests, usually breaking in the high 40's to low 50's with 53 being the highest.

I read somewhere that sleeving it with a different line is suppose to increase knot strength. I found that a uni knot sleeved, held up to about 59lbs, which only held up to the low 50's without the sleeving, so it did improve it some. Well short of the 90% that they claimed. On a side not, I did not use Dacron though, as none of the baitshops around here had Dacron big enough. I used some 135lb. planar board line from mills fleet. Will actual Dacron improve things? In theory it's used to keep it from cutting into itself, and the planar line should do the same thing.

Of course some people are wondering who cares right? Since none of my reels are gonna come anywhere close to even 40lbs. of drag right? Well they're right. I'm just very picky when it comes to this kind of stuff.

I also tested a couple other lines, 1 being original spiderwire in the 50lb. variety. On a bimini twist, which again held the most held up to about 36 pounds. Most other knots were low 30's.I also tried PowerPro 20lb. On this stuff I found 1 or 2 knots that held over 20lbs. I never did try the bimini on it though, but I'm sure it would have held. A palomar held about 24 pounds before the line snapped, it didn't snap at the knot though, it was about a foot from it. Most knots were in the 16-22 pound range. The palomar was the only one that didn't break at the knot.

So maybe Spiderwire just has bad knot strength???

Has anybody else done any kinds of tests like these?

I'm kinda curious. If it turns out to be that SW has bad knot strength, I may switch to something else. I may pick up a spool of 80lb. tufline xp and try that.

I only use Spiderwire and my knots never break. I don't know what kind of knot it is that I use but I've tested it with 12 pound test. And I've taken the weight up to 14 pounds before the line snaped. I wont use any thing else.

Well. I just did some more tests. And the results were kinda surprising.

20lb. powerpro broke at about 23 pounds with a uni, it broke at the knot. This is the interesting part. I used a regular old granny knot superglued because they kept pulling apart, and it broke at 28lbs, at the knot. WTH???? Doesn't make any sense to me.

I just tried some stealth 8lb. With a uni knot it broke at about 11 lbs. at the knot. I tested the stealth 3 times and they were all in the 11 pound range. So I guess the smaller stealth holds up fine with knots. Just not the bigger stuff.

Tonight I'm gonna run and pick up a spool of 50lb. power pro and see how that does.

What kind if fish are you going for with 50lb test. That would be some mighty big fish. I have caught up to 12 lb northerns on 6 lb test without leaders. That's 200% of the rated weight of the line. In theory, this means you could concievably catch a 100 lb fish on 50 lb line. Weight in the water is different then weight in the air.